“It’s important that we run well on this course because we want to see both of our teams win conference championships,” Glendale college Coach Eddie Lopez said. “We want to be able to give the athletes a chance to race the course so they could run well and see what’s in store for the conference championships.”
The conference finals will be held at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 27. Until then, the Vaqueros are scheduled to compete in four meets.
Freshman Nina Moore finished second overall with a mark of 18 minutes 4.22 seconds to spark the Vaqueros on the 5K course Saturday. Karen Rosas placed third (18:59.85) for the Vaqueros, who got a fourth-place effort from Brianna Jauregui (18:59.89), and a fifth-place performance from Rosa Del Toro (19:19.57). The Vaqueros, who won the Southern California Championships last season, also got an eighth-place effort from Diana Sanchez (19:41.17), a ninth-place finish from Katie Dunn (19:48.51) and an 11th-place finish from Angelina Gonzalez (20:02.01).
Dunn, a sophomore, made her season debut after missing the first two meets because of lower-back problems.
“We ran well as a group,” said Lopez, whose team captured the event last season. “We run well as a pack, but we’ve still got to be able to close the gap.”
Cuesta College finished second with 76 points and Hartnell College placed third with 78.
In the men’s portion of the meet, the Vaqueros got a solid effort from sophomore Francisco Quijada. Quijada, who helped Glendale college win the conference title and finish 10th in the Southern California Championships and seventh in state last season, clocked 21:45.40 to take fourth overall on the four-mile course.
Jonathan Alpizar of Glendale college placed fifth (22:02.20) and Ricky Avila was sixth (22:21.70) for the Vaqueros, who got an eighth-place effort from Adrian Anderson (22:23.30), a ninth-place performance from Rico Gutierrez (22:32.70) an 11th-place finish from Francis Herrera (22:42.80) and a 17th-place effort from Max Maier (23:00.20).
We ran better as a pack with under a minute from our first five guys,” said Lopez, who saw the Vaqueros finish second in the race last season. “That’s good for four miles.
“To get 31 points is good. The guys are improving because they are closing the gap. We seem to have more depth.”
College of the Sequoias took second with 54 points, followed by Hartnell with 79.
Both Glendale college programs will next participate in the Golden West College Invitational, which will begin at 10 a.m. Friday in Huntington Beach.
